With virtually every big team was putting a man in the breakaway and second placed David Zabriskie's team Garmin-Slipstream putting pressure on Astana, race leader Levi Leipheimer and his team had to control the pace of the peloton for most of the day without any help from their competitors.

Astana's goal was, by no means, to reel the breakaway back and set the stage up for a bunch sprint, but rather to keep the breakaway in check and make sure that no one ahead of the peloton gained any significant time to threaten Leipheimer's lead.

Up the road, the breakaway riders were attacking each other left and right going into the final circuit and it was AG2R's Rinoldo Nocentini who took the day and delivered the first stage win for his team in California.

Hayden Roulston (Cervelo) came in second, while Peter Weening (Rabobank) came in third.

The Astana-led peloton came in 2:15 behind, protecting their lead going into Sunday's final stage.